Light fixture with changing light emission

ABSTRACT

A light fixture having a light source surrounded by an opaque cylinder member having a large number of small holes therein for permitting light to pass therethrough into a set of prisms disposed in a cylinder just outside said cylinder member, and a motor to rotate said cylinder member about its axis, said prisms being elongated substantially parallel to said axis, said cylinder member being flexible to permit it to be mounted on three spokes radiating from the output rotary shaft of said motor by said spokes being received through three of said holes in said cylinder member.

v United States Patent Pennington et al.

[54] LIGHT FIXTURE WITH CHANGING LIGHT EMISSION I Inventors: Davis W. Pennington, Santa Ana;

[ 51 Oct. 31, 1972 Primary Examiner-Samuel S. Matthews gg Taylor Laguna Beach both Assistant Examiner--Richard A. Wintercom o Attorney-Noel G. Conway [73] Assignee: Kinetic Lighting [22] Filed: Nov. 25, 1970 :111 f h I Zh d d b A ig t rxture aving a i tsource surroun e y an [21] opaque cylinder member having a large number of small holes therein for permitting light to pass [52] us; c1..... ..240/7s CF, 40/33, 40/77, therethwugh into a Set of Prisms disposed in a 40/133 A,240/108 cylinder just outside said cylinder member, and a [51] Int. Cl. ..F2ls 1/06, F215 3/06 mow! mate said cylinder member its axis [58] Field of 78 CF 108; 40/33, said prisms being elongated substantially parallel to 40/77 133 A 133 B 106 53 said axis, said cylinder member being flexible to permit it to be mounted on three spokes radiating from the output rotary shaft of said motor by said spokes [56] References cued being received through three of said holes in said UNITED STATES PATENTS cylinder membef- 7 2,761,959 9/ 1956 Kunins ..240/ 10.1 X 7 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures 23 {8 1% Z3 0 2/ l i LIGHT FIXTURE WITH CHANGING LIGHT EMISSION This invention relates to light fixtures, and more particularly to light fixtures which have a transparent enclosure with means within the enclosure for constantly changing the effect on the enclosure of a light source within the enclosure.

Briefly, light fixtures incorporating the present invention include a transparent enclosure with a light source disposed therein. And, between the light source and the transparent enclosure, there is provided means which interupt the light emanating from the light source more in certain small areas than in other areas. And, by constantly moving said light interuption means, there is an optical effect of lights moving on the enclosure, which effect is augmented by forming the enclosure as a series of prisms.

An important aspect of the light fixtures incorporating the present invention is that they can accomplish the constant changing of the light emission and yet the fixture is susceptible to low cost manufacture and reliability of performance.

With the foregoing in mind, it is a major object of this invention to provide an improved light fixture which has constantly changing light emission.

Another object of this invention is to provide a light fixture with varying light emission, which fixture can be constructed at a low cost.

Still a further object'of this invention is to provide a light fixture with moving internal structure which fixture can be easily disassembled for insertion of new light bulbs.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a simple light fixture which has the capability of constantly varying the appearance of the light fixture.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a light fixture which can accomplish greater variation in the appearance of the fixture with minimum movement of components within the fixture.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a light fixture with constantly changing light emission, which fixture can be rapidly assembled or disassembled.

Other and further objects of this invention will become apparent in the detailed description below in conjunction with the attached drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a somewhat enlarged plan view of the light fixture disclosed in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of the light fixture, taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary cross sectional view of the light fixture, taken along 4-4 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross sectional view of the fixture disclosing how the light interuption means is flexed for assembly and disassembly purposes;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the fixture enclosure disclosing details of the prisms of the enclosure;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view of the fixture, taken along line 77 in FIG. 3, with the light interuption means in one position; and,

FIG. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view of the fixture, taken along line 77 in FIG. 3 but with the light interuption means in a somewhat dif ferent position.

' Referring now to the drawings, there is disclosed a light fixture, indicated generally by the arrow 10, which is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Briefly, the fixture 10 preferably includes a transparent, or nearly transparent, prism enclosure 11 having a plurality of lights 12 therein. For interupting the light rays between the lights 12 and the enclosure 11, there is preferably provided a perforated opaque cylinder 13 having a large number of small holes 14 therein. By means to be described further below, this cylinder 13 is constantly rotated at a slow speed, e. g., l to 3 RPM, to accomplish the constantly changing light emissions as desired.

The fixture 10 includes a centrally disposed plate 16 which has means for securing thereto a chain 17 for the purposes of hanging the fixture from the ceiling. A plurality of struts 18 are secured to the plate 16 and radiate to a position where they are secured to ring 20, having a flange 21 preferably which projects beyond the enclosure 1 1. Through the use of a plurality of bolts 23, the enclosure 11 can be removably secured to the ring 20 by means of wing nuts24.

The plate 16 and the ring 20 efl'ectively substantially close off the open top of the enclosure 11. The enclosure 11 also has a bottom 27 with a centrally disposed depending ornament 28. The structure of the enclosure 1 1 will be described in further detail below. Suffice it at this point to state that the enclosure 11 is preferably molded out of some transparent, or nearly transparent plastic.

At the center of the enclosure 11, there is secured to the plate 16 a motor-gear box 29 having a motor therein which receives power from the same source that illuminates the lights 12. The gear box is such that output shaft 30 of the motor-gear box 29 will turn at a slow speed, e.g.,l to 3 RPM. Connected to the output shaft 30 is a depending shaft 31 to which is adjustably secured a collar 32. As best seen in FIGS. 4 and 8, three spokes 34, 35 and 36 radiate from the collar 32 at positions apart. These spokes 34, 35, and 36 are received through appropriate holes 14 in the cylinder 13. And, in this manner, the cylinder 13 may be held in its operative position.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, the benefits of the present unique preferred manner of constructing the fixture 10 can be noted. Firstly, the cylinder 13 is preferably made of some flexible and resilient opaque material such as metal or flexible plastic. And as best seen in FIG. 5-because of the flexibility of the cylinder 13-the cylinder can be rapidly mounted on the spokes 34, 35, and 36 even though these spokes are simple wire rods. More particularly, the cylinder 13 can be partially mounted on the spokes 34, 35, and 36 by inserting the spokes 35 and 36 through to appropriate holes 14. Then, the cylinder 13 is flexed to an elliptical condition (shown in somewhat exagerated form in FIG. 5); By this operation, the spoke 34 can be inserted throgh an appropriate hole 14. Then, by merely releasing the cylinder 13, the resiliency of the cylinder will return it to the round condition shown in FIG. 4. And, this returning of the cylinder 13 to its round condition will automatically properly index the cylinder to a position concentric with the shaft 31.

Conversely, when it is desired to remove the cylinder 13, e.g., for the purpose of replacing the bulbs 12, the cylinder 13 can be quickly removed by flexing the cylinder to the elliptical condition to remove one of the spokes 34, 35, and 36 from the cylinder. And then, the cylinder 13 can be removed from the other two of the spokes 34, 35, and 36.

And, it can be seen that merely removing the wing nuts 23 facilitates rapid attachment and removal of the enclosure 11.

Referring now to FIGS. 6 to 8, the structure of the enclosure 11 and the purpose of that structure will be described in further detail. In FIG. 6, there is shown in more detail the exterior surface of a fragmentary portion of the enclosure 11. The exterior surface of the enclosure 1 1 is preferably formed as a series of elongated prisms which are elongated generally parallel to the axis of rotation of the cylinder 13, i.e., generally at a right angle to the movement of the holes 14 of the cylinder. In FIG. 6, there is shown one prism 38 having a first face 39 and a second face 40 which project towards the viewer as they extend toward each other. Similarly, a second prism 41 has its first face 42 and its second face 43 project toward the viewer as they extend toward each other. And, third prism 44 similarly has its first face 45 and its second face 46 project toward the viewer as said faces extend toward each other.

As can also be seen best in FIG. 6,.the prisms 38, 41 and 44 preferably do not have a constant cross section through their length. That is, the prisms 39 and 44 are wider at their lower end than their upper end whereas the prism 42 is wider at its upper end than its lower end. The other prisms of the enclosure 11 are preferably of the same construction.

Referring now to FIG. 7, there is illustrated how light will be allowed to pass through two holes (indicated by the numbers 14a and 14b) in the cylinder 13 in light rays 48 and 49 respectively. Preferably, the distance between the holes 14a and 14b (which are the same as the distance between the other holes 14 of the cylinder 13) are approximately equal to the lateral distance between the center lines of the prisms, e.g., prisms 38 and 41. More particularly, when the cylinder 13 is in the position in FIG. 7, the holes 14a and 14b are preferably spaced so that the light rays 48 will pass through the enclosure 11 and out through the face 39 of the prism 38 while the light rays 49 will pass out through the face 43 of the prism 41.

As indicated by the arrow 50 in FIGS. 7 and 8, the cylinder 13 is constantly moving laterally with respect to the enclosure 11. In FIG. 8, the structure is shown after the cylinder 13 is moved slightly from the position shown in FIG. 7 to a position where the light rays 48 through hole 14a now pass through the face 40 of the prism 38 while the rays 49 through the hole 14b pass through face 45 of the prism 44. And, as illustrated in the FIGS. 7 and 8, the refractive action of the prisms causes the constant velocity motion of the cylinder 13 to appear as a constantly varying velocity. Further, as best seen in FIG. 3, the holes 14 are not in series of lines extending parallel to the axis of rotation of the cylinder 13. Therefore, there is a constant rippling appearance of the lights 12 on the enclosure 11.

While only a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described in detail, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that such is by way of illustration only and numerous changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in its broader form, the invention need not be limited to a cylindrical shape-cg, the light interuption means and enclosure could be more spherical; however, such cylindrical shape does reduce cost of manufacture and facilitate use.

Also, the light interuption means need not be completely opaque with holes; but rather could merely have a large number of small areas which are more transparent than the other areas of the means. Accordingly, it is my intention that the invention be limited solely by the appended claims.

We claim: 1. A light fixture with changing light emission comprising:

a light source;

a large number of prisms surrounding said light source, said prisms being joined together in a prism assembly generally arranged about a predetermined axis;

light interuption means surrounding said light source at a position between said light source and said prisms, said light interruption means having a plurality of small areas which interupt the light substantially less than other areas on said light interuption means, said light interuption means comprising a circular member mounted on the same axis as said predetermined axis;

and power means to change the position of said light interuption means relative to said prisms.

2. The fixture set forth in claim 1 wherein:

said prisms are elongated in a direction extending at a right angle to the direction of movement of said light interuption means.

3. The fixture set forth in claim 1 wherein said prisms are elongated in parallel to said axis.

4. The fixture set forth in claim 1 wherein:

said power means constantly changes the position of said light interuption means in one direction around the light source;

and the distance between individual ones of said small areas in the direction of movement of said light interuption means is approximately equal to the distance between the center lines of two adjacent individual prisms in the direction of movement of the interuption means.

5'. A light fixture with changing light emission comprising:

a light source;

a first set of prisms surrounding said light source;

light interuption means surrounding said light source at a position between said light source and said prisms, said light interuption means having a plurality of small areas which interupt the light substantially less than other areas on said light interuption means;

a second set of prisms arranged in a circle around said light source, said second set of prisms being located on the side of said first mentioned prisms away from said light source;

and power means to change the position of said light interuption means relative to said prisms.

6. A light fixture with changing light emission comprising:

a light source;

power means including a shaft which is rotated and a plurality of spokes radiating from said shaft at substantially a right angle to the shaft;

and light interuption means surrounding said light source, said light interuption means comprising:

a cylinder having a plurality of light conducting areas therein, which interupt the light substantially less than other areas on said cylinder, said cylinder being flexible so as to permit it to be flexed from a circular cross section to an elliptical cross section, said cylinder being mounted on said plurality of spokes by said spokes being 

1. A light fixture with changing light emission comprisinG: a light source; a large number of prisms surrounding said light source, said prisms being joined together in a prism assembly generally arranged about a predetermined axis; light interuption means surrounding said light source at a position between said light source and said prisms, said light interruption means having a plurality of small areas which interupt the light substantially less than other areas on said light interuption means, said light interuption means comprising a circular member mounted on the same axis as said predetermined axis; and power means to change the position of said light interuption means relative to said prisms.
 2. The fixture set forth in claim 1 wherein: said prisms are elongated in a direction extending at a right angle to the direction of movement of said light interuption means.
 3. The fixture set forth in claim 1 wherein said prisms are elongated in parallel to said axis.
 4. The fixture set forth in claim 1 wherein: said power means constantly changes the position of said light interuption means in one direction around the light source; and the distance between individual ones of said small areas in the direction of movement of said light interuption means is approximately equal to the distance between the center lines of two adjacent individual prisms in the direction of movement of the interuption means.
 5. A light fixture with changing light emission comprising: a light source; a first set of prisms surrounding said light source; light interuption means surrounding said light source at a position between said light source and said prisms, said light interuption means having a plurality of small areas which interupt the light substantially less than other areas on said light interuption means; a second set of prisms arranged in a circle around said light source, said second set of prisms being located on the side of said first mentioned prisms away from said light source; and power means to change the position of said light interuption means relative to said prisms.
 6. A light fixture with changing light emission comprising: a light source; power means including a shaft which is rotated and a plurality of spokes radiating from said shaft at substantially a right angle to the shaft; and light interuption means surrounding said light source, said light interuption means comprising: a cylinder having a plurality of light conducting areas therein, which interupt the light substantially less than other areas on said cylinder, said cylinder being flexible so as to permit it to be flexed from a circular cross section to an elliptical cross section, said cylinder being mounted on said plurality of spokes by said spokes being received through different ones of holes in said cylinder, and said cylinder is adapted to be flexed to an elliptical shape in order to permit the cylinder to be mounted on said spokes.
 7. The fixture set forth in claim 6 wherein said cylinder has a resiliency to return it back to its circular cross section, and said spokes are at least three spaced substantially equidistant apart, whereby the cylinder will tend to automatically orient itself concentric to said axis when the cylinder is released. 